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1. Comments are still disabled though I am thinking of enabling them again.

2. There are now several extra pages - Poetry Index, Travel, Education, Childish Things - accessible at the top of the page. They index entires before October 2013.

3. I will, in the next few weeks, be adding new pages with other indexes.

Saturday, 19 October 2013

Thailand And Laos 1998: Day 5

It would be untrue to
claim that I slept badly for that would be to imply that I slept. My
locally hired sleeping bag was tissue paper thin and would have been
inadequate to even the mildest of chills. As the night was freezing
it was worse than useless. Even sleeping in my clothes failed to
generate enough warmth to allow me to fall asleep. If the temperature
alone were not enough to keep me awake then the constant noise of the
pigs and the frequent but random crowing of a host of roosters was
certainly up to the task. Occasionally I would hear others tossing
and turning or grumbling and, for a while, the opaque square mosquito
net in the corner which housed two of the women was lit by a torch as
one of them decided to try to read. There was also a weird rustling
from one of the others - wrapped in a foil 'space blanket' that made
him look like a turkey ready for the oven - whenever he turned over
or adjusted his position or breathed a little too heavily. It was a
cold miserable and uncomfortable night and as soon as they greyish
light of dawn started to penetrate the cracks in the walls I
struggled from my bag, climbed over the bodies and went outside onto
the balcony. I pulled on my shoes and approached the steps.

What happened next
is a little vague.

I looked down at
the steps and noted their position and stepped down. At the crucial
moment something must have distracted me for the next thing I knew I
had missed the step and was pitching forward with my arms
instinctively flailing up towards my head for protection. It did no
good and even as I heard myself scream I felt my head hammer solidly
against one of the pillars supporting the next building. Wit came
rushing out to see what calamity had caused the noise which had woken
the whole village. I could feel the warm stickiness of blood as it
ran down the side of my cheek which was already turning cold with
shock. Others emerged to see what was happening. Someone started to
organise cleaning me up and repairing me. I know the symptoms of
shock but I've never felt them so clearly as then. I was cold and
shaking and disoriented and distantly aware that I was babbling
nonsensically as my brain tried to sort out what was happening.
Gradually I started to pull myself together as I realised that my
limited first aid knowledge was about the best the group had and that
my first aid kit was certainly the best stocked. I sent someone for
it as I sat wrapped in a blanket, shivering and sipping at a cup of
hot and unbearably sweet tea that Pat hat pressed into my hands. It
soon became clear that I was going to need a trip to the hospital.
There were several small shallow cuts and grazes above my left ear
and on the back of my head and two rather deep gashes - one
immediately behind the ear and a second on the front of it which had
torn down a triangular flap of skin which was hanging loose. It was
this cut that was bleeding fairly profusely. We cleaned it up and
dressed it. Meanwhile I was checking myself for other injuries. My
left foot, which had twisted under me as I had fallen was extremely
painful and starting to bruise. The toe felt broken. I immobilised it
with tape and then set about persuading Wit that while the others
could walk I certainly needed at least a check up at the hospital.It
was no easy task but finally he agreed and when the truck departed I
was lying in the back. Wit and our truck driver, Mr. Tah , were in
the front. Every now and again one of them would ask me how I was
feeling. I was feeling tired, hurt and very like a complete prat. The
ride was uncomfortable and sweaty - about two hours in the morning
sun over very bumpy dusty roads until finally we came to a main
highway and fifteen minutes later arrived at the hospital. I am
not sure what I had been expecting but the reality was a pleasant
surprise. The building was a single storey modern structure not much
larger than a town clinic but it looked clean and hygienic. There
were a large number of Thai patients waiting but Wit overrode my
feeble protestations and marched me to the front of the queue. Five
minutes later a nurse had removed the dressing on my ear and cleaned
it up again. She said something in Thai. Wit translated."She
says you need injection."

"What for ?"
I asked wondering if I would need to break out the sterile needle and
syringe that I was carrying.Wit asked."Tetanus." he
said.I was relieved. "I don't need it. I had a tetanus
shot only about a month ago."He translated for her. She
wasn't convinced but eventually decided that if I didn't want it she
couldn't force me to have it. The ear was a different matter. It was
obvious even to me that it needed stitches. Ten minutes later it was
done and we could take a look at the foot. I hobbled into X-ray and
gasped in awe that a piece of equipment so old could still be
operating. Nevertheless it was and the picture that was brought out
barely five minutes later was certainly a foot although I couldn't
swear that it was mine. The senior nurse examined it and explained to
Wit that it was not broken, just badly bruised. She wrote out a
prescription and I took it to the apothecary window. It turned out to
be six prescriptions. One for sterile dressings and swabs, one for
iodine solution, one for sterile saline solution and three for
assorted drugs. Of these the one a day capsules were clearly
antibiotics. I had no objection to taking those. The others were
another matter. One packet contained aspirin sized fluorescent green
square tablets and the other tiny bright orange oval pills. I asked
what they were and Wit checked."Painkillers" was his
uncertain reply.I resolved to throw them down the nearest toilet
and take paracetamol if I was in any pain and we climbed back onto
the truck.As we drove into town Mr. Tah tried to cheer me up. He
rolled up his sleeve and showed me two scars on the front and back of
his forearm. They were ragged six inch strips of dead white flesh
with poor wide stitches criss-crossing them."I have done at
same hospital." he said smiling as I looked in horrified
fascination at the scars."What did you do ? " I
asked.The truck bounced over a rut in the road as he replied in
mime, raising his arm and bringing it down towards the top of the
piece of metal tubing that was securing his seat to the
vehicle."Truck roll over !" he said with equal
pleasure.I groaned and closed my eyes.

The others
hadn't reached the Lahu village when I got there so I could pick my
spot in tonight's bedroom. The Lahu are another hill tribe originally
coming from Tibet. There are fewer of them, about 60,000 and like the
Karen they are subdivided into smaller groups. A significant
difference in the village was that not all of the buildings were
elevated. Tonight we were to be divided between two huts, one of them
on the same basic pattern as the previous night and the other built
on the ground with only the sleeping platform raised and that only to
a height of about two feet. I chose a corner position in the low hut.
There was no sense in taking further risks. That done I limped
painfully outside and took a look around the village. It was smaller
than the Karen village with only about a dozen buildings that were
all crowded together as if for security. The people were friendly and
curious about why I was there. Several times I explained in mime to
the amusement of the village children exactly what I had done. After
an hour of wandering about taking pictures I sat down at the table to
rest my foot. Immediately someone appeared with a large bowl of
noodle soup. While I was eating it he appeared again with a metal
plate piled up with chips. I ate it eagerly. My accident had had no
adverse effect on my appetite. While I was finishing off the chips
the others all arrived. There was some sympathy and a lot of
piss-taking but a general sense of relief, that didn't even come
close to matching mine, that I seemed to be all right.